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 I
saw The Bellrays when they ripped through a town cuppla years ago,
and it was easily one of the most intense rock n’ roll shows I’ve ever
seen, a powerhouse of soul shakin’ Motor City fury, the heaviest dose of
live, raw Revolution Rock this side of actually rioting and fucking
on the floor. Led by the peerless Lisa Kekaula, the Bellrays call
‘emselves “Maximum Rock n’ Soul” and have quite accurately been pegged as
“Tina Turner fronting the MC5” more than once. And as wild and hairy and
free as that sounds, it’s fuckin’ true, Jack.
The only problem is that the Bellrays have never been able to bottle that fire in the studio, despite a few solid attempts over the years (“Let it Blast”, Scooch Pooch, 1998, remains the definitive document, so far), so the only way to really experience their balls-out sonic assault was to catch them live. That’s not hard to do, really, since they tour constantly, but folks spend a lot more time on the couch these days, and sometimes the revolution passes ‘em right by. That’s where Punkervision comes in. They’re the same dudes-in-England-with-3-video-cameras who produced those bitchin’ live Alice Donut and Electric Frankenstein DVD’s. They caught The Bellrays in London on April 29th, 2005, in a typically roof-shaking performance. Well, there was some kinda screwy tech glitch going on, so you can see the sound guys crawling around the stage plugging and unplugging shit, but mostly it’s about Lisa, testifyin’ to the crowd (“We’re gonna make sure you go home tonight feelin’ LOOOVVVED, babies!”) while rocking a too-tight dress and wearing her afro sculpted into Minnie Mouse ears. Visually and sonically, she’s so powerful and so sexy that you almost forget she’s got some of the toughest rock n’ roll soldiers in the biz behind her. Longtime brothers-in-arms Bob Vennum and Tony Fate lay down the soul-punk guitar/bass squall like the riffs kill giants with every stroke, or something. The Bellrays have a new drummer, too, Craig Waters; he has crazy frizzy Starsky hair and sometimes he’s rockin’ so hard he’s gotta stand up while he beats those things into the floor, like the drums are wild beasts that he’s gotta tame. Together, they run roughshod over classics like “Sister Disaster”, “Tell a Lie”, “Change the World”, and of course, the incendiary “Revolution Get Down”. You will probably think you just joined some sort of underground military taskforce after that one. And you might have. There’s an interview outside the club included,
too. Very ‘rock interview’ stuff, kinda dry, but at least it explains a
lot about the band. This one is really all about the rock, though. And
sure, watching the Bellrays let it blast from the comfort of your own
living room seems a little sacrilegious, but when’s the last time any of
us have been in fuckin’ church, anyway?
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